Some Pros and Cons

Okay so let's talk about LuLu and some other options for producing our books.

As a group we need to consider a couple of options before making the final decision on which way to go with this. What I'm going to try and do, is lay out a list of pros and cons to each of the possible methods for getting some jobs printed. 

I went to LuLu's site to plug in some figures and see what kind of return we'd get based on our needs. Out of all the products the site offers, the portfolio would be the best option for us for a few reasons. 

• Desired dimension of 9" x 7"
• Saddle stitched up to 56 pages
• Perfect bound up to and beyond a 56 page count
• Upload of PDF file type
• Not limited to any design template
• Inexpensive cost

Using the cost calculator at the bottom right hand corner of the Portfolio product page, I plugged in the following criteria.

• Standard paper
• Soft cover
• Full color
• Landscape 9" x 7"
• Saddle stitch
• 50 pages
• Quantity 1

Those options returned a price of $14.50 u.s. When a few changes were made to produce a perfect bound addition, the price remained the same. However, here is the difference when going with perfect bound instead of a saddle stitch. The perfect bound has a page range of 32—500, and the saddle stitch can not go beyond a page count of 56. 

There are many things that this group needs to work out with regards to universal formatting. Before getting into that can of worms, it might be a good idea if everyone had a rough estimate on how many pages minimum and maximum their project might produce. 

This all seems pretty good eh, but what are the downsides? Well as far as I've come up with, there's only a few and here they are.

• No personal "hand done" feel
• Limitation on methods for unifying the volumes
• No options for interesting folds, cuts etc.
• Up to approximately a week to ten days to recieve

With regards to that last item, there is a fast production method available from LuLu, starting at $25.00 to get your book printed and shipped out the following day. That is providing your order is uploaded before 4 p.m. EST. This does not include the shipping costs either. I do not have a line on specific shipping costs as I haven't gone that far in any creation steps with their website. They do appear to ship through multiple carriers so I imagine the rates are reasonable.

Given all that, what do you think about LuLu? If you'd like to look over some specifics and some frequently asked questions about the PDF requirements, you can review the Book FAQs page on LuLu's website.

Thanks for looking over the pros and cons to the LuLu option. My next post will be discussing considerations with doing this ourselves locally and at home, in the "Homestyle" post.

—sean

Book Fabrication Possibility

So, Roy brought up LuLu which could be a possible route for printing as they also do saddle stitch.

Check the site for possible sizes, they look decent.

-gilkey

The Price of Type

Can the typeface of a restaurant give us hints as to how much the bill is going cost?

This study is purely statistical. I am categorizing the type into serifs, san serifs, decorative, script and hand drawn. After documenting the letters I am going to look at the dinner menus for the restaurants in each category and find the average price for a meal. 

Maybe after this study you can go down to Shockoe Bottom, look in your wallet and find a meal in your price range based on the type. This takes typophilia to a whole new level. 

- Jordy

Live & Learn

So three rolls deep and I realize that the aperture setting for the analog camera has been set on "pinhole" the whole time. At least I assume it was there that long. While shooting with the fourth roll, I noticed that the aperture was constantly switching on it's own to the pinhole state. Probably a result of brushing against my ribcage as it was slung over my free shoulder. At least I was aware of it from this point on and now, remember to double check it before bringing it up to shoot. 

Not sure if I'll bother with having the first three rolls developed on the off chance that they "might" not all be underexposed. Based on what I observed with the switch today, they are. 

Live and learn.

—sean

The Right Mix

Some shots of us hard at work—well, you guys hard at work I'm taking the photos so you'll have to vouch for me

;0)

You guys are a solid team, and make the most out of each of our meetings!

—sean

What is Shockoe Bottom?

• Discover Richmond
• Wikipedia
• River District Blog
• Richmond River District
• Venture Richmond's projects
• Flickr group for Shockoe Bottom/Slip
• Richmond Police: 1st Precinct information

-Jeff

Railways + Highways

Two weeks ago I was able to participate in Leo Divendal's weeklong workshop. His work often deals with photographing the movement of urban spaces. You can see examples of his work here.

My concept for this project is to use photography to show how structures shape the movement of Shockoe Bottom. Two structural presences that can't be ignored in the Bottom are the raised rails and highways. I spent Sunday afternoon photographing these structures and am excited to show the rest of you the other images tomorrow afternoon.

Best,

Jordy Tropp